My Antec P180 Impressions

[MrCodeDude]

I was originally drawn to the Antec P180 due to it's sleek looks, the relatively positive reviews and my prior (fantastic) experience with the P160.

My ideal case is the one I run on top of an USPS Priority Mail Box, it's easily accessible and I can swap out components with ease and minimal tools. The P160 was my favorite case in that regard and I had really high hopes for the P180.

This is more of a rant than anything else.

I hate:
How all the power cables have to be shoved through that small hole.
It makes cable management easy! Yay. It also makes threading your PSU's cables through this really small hole a very tough challenge. Not only that, but if your PSU has an exterior 80mm fan (like mine did), threading them through is almost impossible. Oh, and getting in that PSU with an exterior fan, also pretty tough to do.


My P4 connector barely reached my motherboard
Nothing like situating the PSU at the bottom of the case and then having the motherboard sit right-side up. It barely reached on my PSU, one of my other PSU's P4 cable would not have connected at all.

It's a heavy beast
When I bought it at Fry's, it was already heavy. Install all the other components in it and wow. This isn't so much a complaint as a realization of wow, this case is really heavy. The P160 was incredibly light, P180, incredibly heavy.

Tool-less is a thing of the past
I thought we were moving away from having to screw in each individual part, hell, the Antec Aria only requires you to screw in a couple of the motherboard screws and here I am having to screw in each individual screw for every little thing I want to install.

No removable motherboard tray
Why would they remove this feature? The P160 had it, why take it out? I've never heard anyone complain that the motherboard tray was removable.

Maximum of Two HDDs in the Top Cage
It looks like it could fit four HDDs, turns out, it only holds 2. Why? Oooh, temperature and noise. The P180 is no more silent than the P160, and the P160 at least allowed three. Sure, I can install more 3.5" drives below, but then I'd need pretty long cables.

The Top HDD Cage is "Sticky"
You know how you have to use that ring to pull it out? Half the time you pull out the cage and it won't come out. You have to use a lot of force to counter-act the "stickiness."

Antec took the idea of the P160, made it bigger, prettier and heavier, then removed all the features that made the P160 a great case to deal with.

 

[Orcishhuman]

1.You're right here,
2.Maybe it's heavy, but at least the 3-layers will help insulate sound..
3.Everybody probably thinks the same as you, but strangely I don't care about the number of screws as long as the rest of the case (well nearly) is top-notch,
4.Yes, strange decision by Antec (maybe it would have made the case even heavier?),
5. The HDDs in top cage actually get very warm if you dont have a fan in front of them, so I think maybe Antec was right (and since they're right at the front, you'll be hearing them..),
6.I don't have that issue ?: (

Just my 2 cents =P

 

[Shadowknight]

Few points;
1. The hole for the PSU cables is to minimize air from one thermal zone entering another, to maximize efficient cooling. I had no problem pulling PSU cables through very easily.
2. P4 connector- fair enough, but that's due to the design breaking up the thermal zones. Nothing can be done about that, sadly.
3. Heavy - Mass counteracts the tendancy for a case to resonate from vibrations... One of the points of the whole design in minimizing noise
4. Tool-less - I've seen many complaints about tool-less cases being a pain to work with - it's a design concept that's pretty much dead from all case manufacturers. Or at least the number of cases offered with this feature is still very small.
5. Motherboard tray - Antec has several designs not offering this feature. It there were more parts of the case that could be screwed or unscrewed, it would still make the case more likely to resonate from metal to screws to metal. Keeping it in one piece when possible cuts down on vibrational noise.
6. HDs - Yeah, only allowing 2 drives in the top was a bad desing idea
7. Stick HD cage - Again, part of the desing to minimize noise requires a "tight fit". The looser things are, the more they vibrate.
8. From a noise perspective, the P160 kind of sucked, as shown by the SPCR review. The P180 was geared towards both overclockers and silencers, hence many of the complaints you have.

The case isn't for everyone, most love it, some don't. Frankly, I think it's overrated. I have one. With my old system, with the exact same equipment, it cools slightly less efficiently than my old 3700AMB (grills punched out), with the exception of my passive PSU no longer being next to my CPU. It does no better at decreasing overrall system noise, as I carefully planned my system and modified my old case to keep noise from escaping and from the case from vibrating. I bought the case solely for having thicker walls than the 3700AMB. The P180 panels do a better job of minimizing noise vs. the 3700 panels with Acoustipack applied. The front of the case is a bit quiter, due to the side vents and the door being thicker than the 3700, but the primary flaw of the 3700 was mostly because the cheap plastic had an echoing effect with air being pulled in and residual hard drive noise leaking out. I hate the open vent on top. Spills can happen, and I need/want to seal it off as a preventive measure. Besides, with the top fan turned off, the rear fan is pulling air from the top, bringing dust into the system, negating the benefits of the filters in the front of the case.

 

[natethegreat]

What? No mention of the absolute pos vga duct!?!?!?

All kidding aside, your gripes are only minor issues at best and could have been avoided if you had done some simple reashearch before buying....

 

[eastvillager]

...all conscious design decisions.

The case certainly has some issues, but they're trivial, and they do not hamper it from achieving its goal: quiet aircooling.

You think it is heavy? try sticking 6 hard drives, 2 video cards, 2 optical drives, a floppy, and a scythe ninja in the case. I'm moving mine today and it weighs a ton. I've got one of those thermaltake case harnesses, though, so moving it isn't that hard.

 

[mooncancook]

1. I had to remove the center fan because the PSU cables are dangerously close to the fan blades. Also placing my Phantom 500 PSU in and out of the case is PITA.
2. Cable length works rather well for me because it reaches without much bending.
3. My biggest complaint so far. I had to move this case a couple times and it's major pain. It's huge and extremely heavy, and there's not much handle or grip to speak of.
4. Tool-less thing is rather insignificant to me
5. It's good to have but it's not a big deal for me
6. Limited to 2 HDD in the top cage sucks for me because I've replaced the lower cage area with WC radiator and fan
7. Being a little "sticky" is at least better than being to loose.

Lastly the VGA ducts sucks that a standard 80mm fan won't fit. But it does work when I was using my X800XL with VF700. It draws a lot of hot air out.

Despite some gripes I still love my P180 case. It's handsome looking, and it's pretty quiet while still keeping my OC'ed system cool. Most of the time I could keep all the fans in very low speed, even when gaming, and it keeps my PSU fan from ever kicks in.

Seriously I think if they build the same case with aluminum and test it, I doubt it'll be noticebly louder. Of course that'll cut into their profit margin if they sell at the same target price. For $150 I expect more aluminum. Overall it's a fairly good case with lots of room for improvement.

 

[theMan]

i am going to say that the P160 definately pwns the crap out of the P180. the p180 was a deprovement imo

 

[Pens1566]

Originally posted by: mooncancook
1. I had to remove the center fan because the PSU cables are dangerously close to the fan blades. Also placing my Phantom 500 PSU in and out of the case is PITA.
2. Cable length works rather well for me because it reaches without much bending.
3. My biggest complaint so far. I had to move this case a couple times and it's major pain. It's huge and extremely heavy, and there's not much handle or grip to speak of.
4. Tool-less thing is rather insignificant to me
5. It's good to have but it's not a big deal for me
6. Limited to 2 HDD in the top cage sucks for me because I've replaced the lower cage area with WC radiator and fan
7. Being a little "sticky" is at least better than being to loose.

Lastly the VGA ducts sucks that a standard 80mm fan won't fit. But it does work when I was using my X800XL with VF700. It draws a lot of hot air out.

Despite some gripes I still love my P180 case. It's handsome looking, and it's pretty quiet while still keeping my OC'ed system cool. Most of the time I could keep all the fans in very low speed, even when gaming, and it keeps my PSU fan from ever kicks in.

Seriously I think if they build the same case with aluminum and test it, I doubt it'll be noticebly louder. Of course that'll cut into their profit margin if they sell at the same target price. For $150 I expect more aluminum. Overall it's a fairly good case with lots of room for improvement.

1. Fan grill and sleeved cables. Fixed.

 

[mooncancook]

oh btw I found out if you reverse the top mounted fan it helps the cooling alot, but you'll need some kind of dust screen to keep dust away.

 

[Maximilian]

Ive had no issues with this case at all, its great IMO. Yes you mention valid points but theyve never had any impact on me.

Only thing is that its a little on the heavy side. But lifting a heavy weight is healthy and heavy means quality.... usually.

 

[DBSX]

1. I didn't have a problem, with the trap door open I found the whole more than large enough for all my cables. And I have a lot.

2. No problem for me either. I wish i could have run the cable under the motherboard, but it wasn't long enough for that. I was able to rout it nicely near the PCI card plan and it fit nicely between my PCI/PCIe cards with no problem. Again, maybe because of my PSU having fairly long cables, this was no problem for me.

3. Yeah. Even empty it was really heavy. But I don't mind, I think there is one more move in my future, and I can handle that (it won't be for years anyhow). It certainly reduces noise from vibration.

4. This is a non-issue as far as I am concerned. I have no problem using a scredriver. In fact, without one I feel I am playing with legos or something.

5. This bothered me as well when i was shopping for the case. Then I figured it's so big there is no real need. I'll install my motherboard once, maybe do one upgrade in this case and it's done.

6. This doesn't bother me either. It's nice that I can use super short (six inch) SATA cables. But then my board layout allows me to use the same 6" cables for the lower drive bay as well, though it will be a bit of a stretch for any additional drives I add, they are farther away fropm the board side of the case, and the remaining SATA ports are also farther away from the front. Plus my single drive there is happy to be alone, I don't plan on getting another (unless I come upon a cheap 74GB Raptor and decide to RAID them, just because).

7. Another non-issue. Once the drives are installed, i don't plan on removing this again for a good long while. Plus, sticky means less vibration, as was mentioned above.

All are valid points however. I agree the case isn't for everyone. I was initially put off by the door (I don't generally like doors) but the more I looked at cases in my research, the more the P180 grew on me. I like it's nice simple lines, it's hella quiet, and I think it looks awesome (but then I am a big fan of big brick-shaped computers).

My only gripe was the issue of my warping door, but Antec sent my replacement very quickly and I should recieve my new, upgraded, (hopefully) warp-resistant door within days.

\Dan